by A. E. Radley
“Mommy, I’m a helicopter!” Henry cried.
Tom was gripping his hands and spinning him wildly around the garden.
“You break it, you bought it,” Emily called out to Tom.
“He’s fine,” Tom reassured.
“Be careful with him,” Lucy shouted. “You’ll snap his arms off.”
Tom rolled his eyes at the worrying women. He lowered Henry to the ground and started to chase him.
Lucy poured some more homemade lemonade into Emily’s glass. Emily watched Henry and Tom playing in the garden and let out a contented hum. Henry had been eager to see Tom and Lucy and tell them all about starting school. She was happy to see him enjoying himself, even if the jet lag was causing her to feel a little sluggish.
In all her time in cabin crew, she never once suffered from jet lag. But now she was left wondering what day it was and why she felt exhausted in the afternoon. She guessed the real secret to avoiding jet lag was having such a packed flight schedule that jet lag was never able to find you.
“It’s like old times,” Lucy said.
“No, it’s not. I was always working. I think I only ever sat in this garden twice the whole time I lived here,” Emily pointed out.
She leaned back and enjoyed the feel of the sun on her face.
“No, really?” Lucy asked. “I thought we did this a lot.”
“We spoke about doing it a lot,” Emily corrected. “But I was either working, or exhausted from working.”
She shivered a little at the memories. Long night shifts, worries about Henry’s health, mounting bills, and seemingly no way out. Things had changed beyond all recognition.
“Well, we’re here now,” Lucy said. “How is work? Is it exciting?”
“It’s amazing,” Emily confirmed. “I wish it was here in New York, but still amazing.”
“Do you miss being home?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah, I feel like I’m in the same situation I was before. Just with more money, doing something I love, and not such a gruelling schedule.” Emily sat up and looked at Lucy. “I just got married, like, a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve already spent a week away from my family. I swear Henry is bigger than when I left.”
Lucy laughed. “He’s having a growth spurt.”
“He is. I always worried he’d resent me for working so much, but I could deal with it because I knew it wasn’t a choice. I had to do it. But now, I do have a choice. And I’m choosing to spend time away from him, and I feel awful.”
“Henry’s a good boy, he understands. As well as he can at that age.”
Emily shook her head. “I don’t know if he does. He’s getting older, he’s asking more questions. And then there’s Olivia. I feel bad that she’s suddenly taken on the role of his primary carer. I wonder if I’m doing the right thing. Lucy, am I being too selfish?”
“You’re not,” Lucy told her firmly. “You have an amazing opportunity, anyone would tell you that you’d be a fool not to take it. You have a skill, a talent that not everyone has. This is the chance to make a name for yourself, to build up a new career and make some money. And I’m sure Olivia is loving her new role with Henry.”
Emily sipped at her lemonade but remained silent. She wasn’t sure she wanted to venture into this conversation. Although, the gates had been opened now, so she doubted she could avoid it.
“Isn’t she?” Lucy frowned.
“I’m not sure,” Emily admitted. “She loves Henry, and she’s great with him. But…” She blew out a breath and flopped back in her chair. “I don’t know if she’s happy.”
Lucy chuckled. “Of course she’s happy! Anyone who sees the three of you together could tell you that.”
Emily sat up again and watched as Tom and Henry ran circles around the large oak tree at the bottom of the garden. She recalled the previous evening, cuddled up on the sofa with Olivia, talking about London and her new job. Olivia had been engaged and asking questions, but Emily noticed that her own commentary was missing. When Olivia used to talk about work, it was with a spark in her eye. Now that spark was gone. After a brief conversation about the contractor who was installing the household surround sound system, Olivia had become quiet. Like there was nothing else to say.
“I think that she feels that something is missing,” Emily said softly. “When I met Olivia, her work was everything. But now she’s retired, and I think she did it for me. Obviously, she was pushed out of Applewoods, but I thought she’d find something else to do. Then she suggested that she stay home while I go out to work. And now she throws herself into project after project, like she’s trying to fill a void.”
“Like the garden,” Lucy agreed.
“Like the garden, and decorating the house, and a new baby,” Emily added. “If she truly wanted to do those things then it wouldn’t be a problem, but I get the impression that she’s just trying to fill a hole.”
“Have you talked to her about it?”
Emily snorted a laugh. “A little. It’s hard with Olivia. Often, she doesn’t know why she does things herself. It takes her a while to process what she’s thinking, feeling, and why she is doing what she’s doing. Sometimes she can’t process it at all. I think something is starting to niggle at her. She was very quiet when she picked me up from the airport yesterday.”
She decided not to venture into the whole possible diagnosis discussion. That could wait for another time when she had more information. And she didn’t want to muddy the waters. She was positive that Henry’s potential diagnosis and Olivia’s listlessness were not connected.
“Maybe she’ll be ready to talk about it soon?” Lucy asked hopefully.
“I hope so. I can’t stand to see her unhappy.”
“Do you think she’s actually unhappy?”
Emily considered the question. “I don’t know about unhappy, but she doesn’t seem happy either. Maybe a little lost and trying to find her footing.”
“Maybe she just needs time. You said yourself, you haven’t been married long and there have been a lot of changes.” Lucy smiled endearingly. “She’ll settle soon, I’m sure of it.”
Emily didn’t share Lucy’s optimism, but she returned the smile nonetheless. Lucy had always been the kind of person who was content to wait and see. But waiting and seeing had never been Emily’s strong suit. She knew something was up, and now she was itching to fix it.
“Mommy!” Henry ran towards them. “Tom says he’s going to get me!”
Emily held her arms out, and Henry barrelled into her. She pulled him up into her lap and wrapped her arms around him.
Tom slowly approached with his hands up. “I don’t think I would have been able to catch you, Henry. You’re too fast for me.”
“I’m fast!” Henry announced. He squirmed out of Emily’s arms and started to run in the opposite direction. Tom jogged after him.
Emily chuckled as she watched them go.
“What’s Olivia doing today?” Lucy asked.
Emily rolled her eyes. “She’s meeting with a contractor to get an estimate for putting some shelves in her office. And someone else is installing a multi-room sound system that is supposedly essential.”
“Having music playing is nice,” Lucy pointed out.
“It is, but we have a radio. And a CD player. A television. Laptops, iPads. A means to play music isn’t something we’re struggling with. And the shelves in her office aren’t really essential either. Not that I’d stop her from doing what she wants… I just worry.”
“Worry that she’s struggling to let go of work?”
Emily nodded. “She’s calling Simon less and less, but she wants to remodel her office. I’m not going to say no, it’s her money after all.”
“Sounds like she needs a project,” Lucy suggested. “Something beyond the house, not a garden project. What’s the situation with the baby? Are you still going down that route?”
Emily shrugged her shoulders. “It’s hard to say, we both know we need to discuss it more. T
here are so many options and the process isn’t going to be a quick one. But I feel rushed and Olivia is bored. There’s this huge disconnect. I feel like it was only yesterday that we got married. I’ve been so busy that everything feels like it’s going a million miles an hour.”
“Talk about jetlag,” Lucy said with an understanding nod. “But Olivia doesn’t have much going on so, for her, it’s been ages.”
“Exactly. And I’m trying to do both things at once, but I can’t rush such an important decision and we have such limited time to speak. It’s not really a conversation you can have over the phone.” Emily shifted uneasily in her seat. “And then there’s the fact that she is now talking about adopting a child.”
Lucy’s eyebrows rose. “Oh. That’s…”
Emily nodded. “I know. And I also know that, as an ex-foster child, I should be all about adoption, giving a child a home and a second chance. But I can’t help thinking it’s a bad idea. Just the thought of the application process gives me nightmares. Justifying to a stranger that I’d be a good parent, when I’m hardly ever going to be home. And my financial history. And to be brutally honest, I don’t know if I’d be a good parent to a troubled child. I don’t feel properly equipped.”
“I thought Olivia wanted to carry a baby herself?” Lucy asked hesitantly, obviously wondering if there was a deeper reason why she’d changed her mind.
“She does. She did,” Emily amended. “She started to talk about there being so many children in the world already who needed homes. But I think the truth of it is that she feels the baby may inherit some of her… traits.”
Lucy looked at her with a frown before the inference suddenly dawned on her. “Oh, her… traits.”
“Of course, I told her that I didn’t care about that. I mean, I don’t, really. If the baby grows up to have some kind of diagnosis, then it’s not the end of the world. I’d love them all the same. Just as I love Olivia. But I think the pressure of that possibility is getting to her.”
“Poor thing,” Lucy sympathised.
Emily closed her eyes and rested her head back again. She didn’t expect married life to be easy, she knew they would encounter bumps along the way. But she had hoped to at least get the first month out of the way without any major issues.
“I’ve started a new yoga class. Maybe I could invite Olivia to that?” Lucy suggested.
Emily bit her lip to stop herself from grinning. She looked at Lucy and nodded her head. “Absolutely, she might like that.”
She knew that Olivia wouldn’t like it at all. But she figured it was up to Olivia to turn down the opportunity to socialise, not her. Maybe Olivia was bored enough to take up yoga. That would be a red flag in and of itself.
“Oh, yes, before I forget.” Lucy reached into her pocket and pulled out a small silver key. She placed it on the patio table and slid it towards Emily. “We had a new lock installed. The old one was jamming up, and I knew it was just a matter of time before I was locked out of my own house.”
Emily looked at the key in confusion.
“You may not live here anymore, but it feels wrong for you to not have a key,” Lucy added.
Emily smiled. “That’s so sweet, Luce.”
She picked up her bag to find a place for the key. As she dug through its contents, she realised a week at a new job meant the bag had quickly filled up with various bits and pieces. She knew she needed to clear it out, but time spent with her family had been much more pressing.
She unloaded some items, receipts, gloves, her purse for pounds, her purse for dollars. At the bottom of the bag her fingers grazed some paper and she picked it up.
Her eyes widened as she saw the envelope. A plain white envelope with her name handwritten on the front. Identical to the envelope that Nicole had handed her in the theatre.
She tore it open and looked inside. A theatre ticket sat in the envelope, looking so innocent and so menacing all at once. It was to the same show, but a different date. Her heart palpitated as she realised this was not the same ticket as before, but a new ticket.
She had no idea how it had gotten into her bag.
“What’s wrong?” Lucy asked, picking up on Emily’s panic.
“I…” Emily trailed off. She wasn’t sure how to explain what was wrong.
She handed the envelope to Lucy. She got to her feet and paced the small patio as she searched her mind for any recollection of the envelope.
How did it get in my bag? she wondered. Who’s had access to my bag?
“A ticket to a show?” Lucy asked in confusion.
“Not long after I started, Nicole said there was a message for me at the theatre’s box office. It was an envelope, just like that one, containing a ticket. I don’t know who it was from. Nicole took it back to the box office.”
“And now it’s back in your bag?” Lucy asked.
“No, worse, this is a new ticket. The date is different.”
Lucy turned the ticket over and examined it for more information.
“I don’t know how it got in my bag. Someone must have put it there.” Emily shuddered at the thought. She paused and hugged her middle. “Oh, God… and the flowers.”
Lucy looked up at her. “What flowers?”
“A couple of nights ago, flowers were sent to my hotel room. I thought Olivia had sent them, but she hadn’t. The card said it was from a secret admirer. I assumed they were for someone else and had been delivered to me by mistake.”
“You think they’re connected?” Lucy sat up in her chair.
Emily shrugged. “Seems too weird to not be, don’t you think?”
Lucy nodded. “I think you need to tell someone.”
“I can’t tell Olivia, she’ll panic. And I don’t really know anything. Maybe the flowers really were for someone else, and I’m just being paranoid.”
Lucy held up the envelope. “That doesn’t explain this.”
Emily flopped back into her chair. “I don’t want to worry Olivia. Being so far apart is hard enough without worrying about this as well.”
Lucy looked uncertain. “Well, then, you have to tell Nicole. At least so someone is aware of it. It’s creepy, Em. Even if the flowers weren’t for you, then how did this envelope get in your bag? If the first one was left at the box office and this one was in your bag, then this person knows where you work and has access to your bag without you noticing. It could be someone you work with.”
Emily swallowed at the insinuation. “I… I work with a lot of people, the theatre is always full of people I don’t recognise.”
“All the more reason to let Nicole know.” Lucy put the ticket back into the envelope and slid it over to Emily. “I get that you don’t want to frighten Olivia, at least until you have more information. But please tell me that you’ll speak to Nicole.”
Emily picked up the envelope and looked at the handwriting. She didn’t recognise it, and it was only her name, just a handful of letters. It was easy to disguise your handwriting for such a short missive.
“I’ll talk to her before I fly back,” Emily promised.
16
Olivia heard the front door click closed and hurried to go greet her family.
“Olivia! We brought dinner home!” Henry shouted out from the hallway.
She approached them with a quizzical look. “I thought I was cooking tonight?”
Emily kicked off her shoes and picked up the takeaway bag from the side table. She nuzzled up to Olivia’s side and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek.
“Less time cooking, more time together doing other things,” Emily whispered huskily in her ear.
Olivia felt her cheeks heat up.
Emily brushed past her and walked towards the kitchen.
“Olivia, where’s Australia?” Henry asked.
She looked down at Henry and blinked. While she was used to Henry’s constant questions and fast-paced topic changes, he still sometimes caught her off guard.
“It’s… um…” Olivia paused. She wond
ered how to explain exactly where Australia was without some form of visual cue.
“Have you been to Australia?”
“Yes, a couple of times.”
“Will I go to Australia?”
“Maybe.” She’d quickly learnt that “maybe” was a safe answer for most questions.
“I’m going to be a rocket ship when I grow up,” Henry said with a wide smile before he turned and walked away.
Not for the first time, Olivia felt like she had been spun in circles by Henry’s greeting. She shook her head and followed Emily into the kitchen.
“Henry wants to go to Australia,” Olivia told her.
Emily was placing plates on the work surface and looked up with a wry grin.
“Does he?”
“Yes, he’s also going to be a rocket ship when he grows up.”
Emily pouted. “Oh, just this morning he said he was going to be a mom, just like me.”
Olivia chuckled. “It appears your time has passed.”
“Usurped by a rocket ship,” Emily sighed. “Story of my life.”
Olivia checked behind her that Henry wasn’t in sight before walking up behind her wife. She wrapped her arms around the blonde and placed a soft kiss on her neck. The previous night had been wonderful, but Olivia still felt like she had a lot of catching up to do.
Emily sighed contentedly. “I’ve missed this.”
“I’ve missed this, too,” Olivia said. One of her hands drifted up Emily’s stomach. “I’ve missed something else, too.”
Emily giggled at the suggestion.
“I’m hungry,” Henry announced as he entered the kitchen.
Olivia jumped back as if burnt.
Emily laughed softly. “Why don’t you set the table, Henry? We’ll be in soon.”
Henry narrowed his eyes and looked at Olivia, and then his mother. “Were you kissing?”
Chance would be a fine thing, Olivia thought.
“Yes, and next the kissing monster might come for you,” Emily told him. She raised her hands and started to stalk towards him.
Henry squealed and quickly barrelled out of the room.